Armed Garda unit to take to city streets

A HEAVILY armed and highly trained Garda unit is to hit the streets of Cork from Monday week.

The Regional Support Unit (RSU) is being piloted in the Garda Southern Region, with sub-units in Limerick and Cork.

The Limerick unit is due to be operational next week, followed by the Cork unit.

The units are armed and trained to a similar standard as the elite Emergency Response Unit (ERU), in Limerick since March.

The units form a “second tier” firearms response to armed situations, including barricade incidents.

They were recommended by Garda Inspector Kathleen O’Toole in her review of the Barr Tribunal, which examined the shooting dead of John Carty in Abbeylara, Co Longford, in 2000.

The squads will deal with armed incidents, including shootings and armed robberies.

The units have been assigned reinforced patrol cars. The firearms will be held in a secure box in the boot. The box will contain less-than-lethal weapons, such as incapacitant sprays and Taser shock guns, and lethal weapons, including Heckler and Koch machine guns and Benelli shotguns.

It’s understood about 24 gardaí and eight sergeants have been trained for the two units. The operational strength of each unit is 10 gardaí and two sergeants, with two other gardaí and two other sergeants spare to fill any vacancies.

“They were trained to the same level as the ERU, which is very high,” said one source.

The training period was three months. The oldest garda is thought to be about 35.

It’s understood up to half of all the gardaí who applied failed to reach the mark, in terms of capabilities and fitness.

The unit in Limerick will be involved in responding to gangland shootings and preventing a resurgence of the violent gang feuds.

With gangland shootings much rarer in Cork, the unit is likely to be concerned with armed robberies.

The gardaí in the units are supposed to carry out normal patrol duties in marked Garda cars and will only convert into RSU mode if they are called to an armed incident. They will change clothes and access the weapons. A number of signs will be placed on the patrol car to distinguish the vehicle from other marked patrol cars.

The RSU will be piloted for some months followed by a review.

If successful they will become permanent and the green light with be given for units in other regions.

The main Garda associations have expressed concern at aspects of the units but agreed to the pilots.

The Garda Representative Association and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors will conduct their own analysis of the pilots.

They are concerned at “blurring” the distinction between unarmed uniformed members and non-uniformed armed officers.